DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
by pleasentbastard
Summary: DNA. It what makes us who we are. It determines what we look like, how we can act, and even how we can think. Zelos was the son of Ares. The burning and destruction of empires was in his blood, and it's only natural that he would be the new downfall of the gods. And that the son of Percy Jackson was his enemy. Post Giant War


**Chapter I: the introduction of new heroes**

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He was named after the god of rivalry.

At the age of seven he wandered into camp, carrying a bloody hammer and an equally bloody girl who was a year or two younger than him. Even at such a young age, he stood tall and defiant, ready to bash out the brains of anyone who was deemed a threat by him. Chiron was the first to meet them. They had just crossed the border and were panting. The girl had collapsed on the grass, the older boy kneeling next to her. He held her, squeezing her flush against him with his blue eyes narrowed at the approaching centaur.

The girl ended up dying. She began to shake but it only lasted moments. Her last breath was a sigh of relief.

There was not much of a funeral for the girl. They cleaned her body, wrapped her in silk sheets that were a cream color, and then they burned her. The boy lived. His wounds were tended too and his hair was discovered to be a platinum blond color but was later shaved due to the fact he had lice.

"Do you have a name?" Chiron asked him.

He did not respond. Not even the slightest nod of his head.

"Where are you from?"

No reply.

The boy was silent. At first, many believed he was mute. This was proven to be wrong during a training session. He was tall for his age but the swords were still too heavy for him to lift. They gave him a dagger and was properly taught how to fight by a man named Chris Rodriguez. The man had become a skilled fighter over the years and he taught the boy well. When he pitted the boy against another boy who was older, letting them use wooden swords to fight, the younger boy was defeated. But again and again he shot right back up and fought with all his might.

"You are a soldier," Chris told him one day. "There is not a doubt in my mind that you are a son of Ares. You fight with all the ferocity a hellhound possesses. And not to mention you have already made a rival." He said this with his brown eyes twinkling, a small smile on his lips. Pride swelled inside the bosom of the boy. "From now on, you shall be named Zelos, after the god of rivalry and zeal."

"… Zelos," the boy said, tasting the name on his lips. Then an almost victorious grin appeared on his face, the first smile anyone has ever seen. "I am Zelos."

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Zelos was seventeen and a son of Ares. He was the best fighter in the entire camp and the most wanted player in capture the flag. Unlike his siblings, he wasn't rowdy. He was mostly expressionless and placid. But he still wasn't nice. He didn't bully the other campers because there was no point to it. Chris taught him that to pick on the weak did not make him any stronger or superior. It just made him a unlikeable person. His friendliness was almost nonexistent. His reserved demeanor intimated the others. But Zelos like it like this. He did not like socializing or mingling with the crowd.

Then there was Chiron. If Chris was Zelos father figure then Chiron was similar to the fun uncle (not that Zelos thought that Chiron was fun of course). He often asked Zelos to show new campers around the camp. But he mostly ended up frightening them or making them feel uncomfortable. This was Chiron's way of trying to make Zelos more friendly. And as usual, it never worked.

He normally never paid attention to the other campers that much until there was a girl who caught his eye. Not in the good way though. She was small, barely reaching his collar bone if she stood in front of him. Her skin was a pasty color and he could see the blue veins like little snakes slithering underneath her papery skin. Despite the hot weather of summer, her long hair was down and cloaking part of her face. The light bounced off the reddish brown color, reminding Zelos of pennies. When their eyes met (well, one eye on her part) met, he felt his blood run cold. Her one visibly eye was a pale lavender-gray color and seemed to stare right into his soul. Then she moved her hair, her fingers pushing back the hair covering the right side of her face.

She was scarred. Her entire right face was scarred. The girl must have been beautiful once but whatever happened to her left her disfigured. The scar itself was silvery and was pulled taunt over her face. Her right eyelid drooped, giving her the appearance that that eye was permanently narrowed. Then as quick as the hair was removed, it fell back into place, like the closing curtain of a performance.

They said her name was Avalon. Avalon Pond. She was fourteen years old and this was her second year of attending camp. When Zelos asked Chiron about her scar, he simply told him that no one knew. After he discovered who this mysterious girl was, he found out that she was also quite a trending topic at camp.

Many of the campers made up stories of how she ended up looking like she did now. A majority of the stories were rather insulting or stupid. But there were a few that seemed plausible. Raphael, a son of Hephaestus, said that perhaps she was attacked by a monster before she came to Camp Half Blood. And after the wound had healed her parents send her here. One son of Apollo said that the wound appeared to be a couple of years old so she definitely got it at least a year or two before she arrived at camp. A daughter of Aphrodite named Violet once announced that her half sister got into a car accident and her scar resembled the one on Avalon's face.

Personally Zelo didn't really care to know why Avalon looked like she did. That was her own business and if she wanted to talk about it then she could. But he was much more interested in her behavior. She watched him like a hawk but never approached him. Avalon always stood at a distance, and made him feel… almost _paranoid_.

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It was dawn when Zelos first went to speak to Avalon. The sky was still dark but in the east there was light, turning the sky into a strange yet wondrous mixtures of soft, violet contours and sharp red rays. Zelos had snuck out of the camp and onto the beach, where he knew Avalon would be waiting for him.

She was sitting on a large piece of driftwood that was a pale gray, almost white, color. It was splintering underneath her but she didn't seem to care. She turned her head, her one visibly eyes staring emotionlessly into his own. "Oh," was all she said. Then she smiled softly, revealing no teeth. The young girl returned her gaze back to the sea. "You came. I didn't think you would."

"You're a daughter of Morpheus," Zelos pronounced simply. "And you've been plaguing my dreams of waves and sand."

"I needed to talk to you."

"You could have just asked me."

"And what fun would that have been?"

Zelos remained quiet. He moved to sit next to Avalon who paid no attention to him. "What is your name?" Zelos asked her, eyes still fixated on the sea.

"You already know it."

"I want to hear it from you."

"Avalon," she told him, her voice soft. "Avalon Pond."

"You have a nice name," Zelos responded after a few moments of silence. "It sounds like the name of a princess." He heard he small giggle and his heart gave a small, involuntary flutter. "Why did you call me here though? There's more than just wanting to talk to me, isn't there?"

"A storm is coming."

"A storm?" Avalon nodded, refusing to look at Zelos who was giving her a quizzical stare. An involuntary shiver ran down Zelos' spine, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. "What kind of storm?" he asked, even though he didn't really want to know the answer.

The girl sucked in a deep breath before telling him, "I had a vision… It was about you, or at least, mostly about you… I saw that you were born of stars and bones, and everything you touched turned to dust."

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They became the best of friends. Both of them were quiet and only spoke to each other when they had to, but they were always together. Standing next to each other, eating together, sitting side by side during the horrid campfire every night. Chiron was thrilled to see that after ten years Zelos had finally made a close friend.

Avalon and Zelos sometimes talked about her dreams when they were alone. Avalon sometimes sounded worried and began to create the habit of wringing her hands (perhaps it was something she always did but only recently did Zelos notice it). The older of the two once proposed telling Chiron about it but Avalon had said no. She wanted to believe that these were just silly dreams or an overactive imagination.

But most of the time they would talk about anything else. Avalon asked Zelos about the other campers. He explained to her about who were the most popular and the best at fighting.

"So there are two children of Poseidon currently?" Avalon asked him as he cleaned his sword. "So where are they?"

"Fighting monsters in the East," Zelos explained simply. "They are half Asian and speak most of the native languages there. And the girl, Tianzi I believe, told me that they prefer taking on a dragon rather than being ogled at by the other demigods. A shame though. She was quite nice and a very good fighter, whether it be hand to hand or with weapons. Her twin brother on the other hand, he was alright. Much quieter than she was and twice as kind as her. Not much of a fighter but always willing to help and do his best."

"You seem like you're good friends with them. Or at least, you want to be."

"They were smarter than the others. They could actually hold conversations."

"Hm. So who else is a celebrity here?"

"Well, there are the children of the seven. Those people are big deals."

"Oh! I think Helen Bradford told me about them!"

Zelos nodded, staring down at his cut finger. His dirty rag was sprinkled with his drops of blood. "They are ogled at constantly by the other campers. They don't stay year around though. Only during the summer. And sometimes only a few of them come. The other ones go to Camp Jupiter, the Roman version of Camp Half Blood. I think some of them live there actually. But they mostly all come down in the summer then return there."

"What are their names?"

The blue eyed boy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really bother to remember. Unless they've actually done something worthwhile then I don't care. They haven't done anything to actually stand about besides being the children of Olympus' heroes."

Avalon raised an eyebrow at him, leaning back against the wall of the training arena. She watched a pair of two boys around her age spar against one another. The sunlight glinted off their blades as a small crowd of on lookers watched, each holding their own weapons. "So you've never fought with them? Here, in this arena? I find it hard not to believe you didn't remember one of them. If they really are the children of Olympus' greatest heroes, then they_ must_ be exceptional fighters."

"There is one that I do recall," Zelos said slowly, his lips turning into a tight line.

"Oh? So I take it that you don't like him, judging from your expression."

"Yes. His name is Darius. Darius Alexander _Jackson._ And he's probably the biggest asshole I've ever had the displeasure of meeting."

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**Well that was the first chapter. I just want to say a giant thank you for actually reading this. It's really nice of to click on this story so I give you a round of applause for being able to make it to the end of this chapter. (And I'm really sorry this story doesn't have much background but more shall come soon!)**

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**Have a nice day. **


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